semitism.net

This, to me, is a Jew.

Washington businessman Leo Kramer, profiled yesterday by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Mr. Kramer, who is in the import/export business, has been an advocate for economic development in the Palestinian territories for over a decade.

Kramer first became outspoken about Israeli treatment of Palestinians 12 years ago, after visiting the Gaza Strip for the first time. Seeing the poverty and the Israeli army’s treatment of Palestinians “was a terrible shock,” he said.

He was surprised by the economic limitations in Gaza and especially disheartened to see Palestinian farmers who had to choose, he says, between leaving oranges to rot on their trees or selling them below market price to Israel’s produce monopoly.

Since then, Mr. Kramer has partnered with the Palestinian Authority to export Palestinian agricultural produce and develop local industry. He is now working on a project to create a college in Gaza; and another to build a plant near Ramallah to produce and export olive oil for the American and British markets. He declares in the interview:

American Jews should apply the Torah and the American tradition of how people are treated to the Israeli situation. In doing so they will help the Israelis have a better life.

The tragedy of this whole thing, among many things, is that the Jews, being committed to the social teachings of the Torah, received the begging and pleading of the Palestinians for 40 years but did not respond until there was physical violence. So we taught the Palestinians that physical violence works, not moral commitment.

I think the burden is on our side. You cannot be the strongest, the wealthiest, the greatest military power, the one with the most money and most experience and then put the blame for the conflict on the other side.

Why does Leo Kramer strike me as so quintessentially Jewish? Because he sees inequality and he reacts, in a very practical way, by trying to correct it. He takes the side of the victim. He evinces no qualm about criticising his own people for the wrongs they commit. He sees this as completely consistent with Jewish tradition - and he’s right.

Of course, JTA has to picture him, not with, say, Palestinian schoolchildren but in an “undated photo” with Yassir Arafat (they couldn’t get a photographer in Tel Aviv when they interviewed him?); and the reporter is careful to balance all of Mr. Kramer’s radical statements with opposing views from various experts. But so what? They still had to admit he exists, and that the sentiment he expresses exists in the Jewish community.

It’s not even that rare. In fact, survey data indicate that a majority of Jews in the U.S. and in Israel oppose the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, oppose the settlements, and favor the creation of a Palestinian state (see also, this).

The Jewish leadership, however, seems determined to correct these mistaken attitudes. An awful lot of ink is spilled on explicating the wrongs the Palestinians have committed against us and explaining away our our own against them.

Brad Rubin makes a very good point on this issue. He forwarded me a response that he wrote to a short question/answer piece called “Putting the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in Perspective,” which appeared in his synagogue’s newsletter. The article, whose author was listed simply as the Washington Hebrew Congregation, took a one-sided view of the conflict, with statements such as “Unlike the terrorists who attack Israel intending to murder civilians, Israel’s goal is to hunt down the murderers.”

Brad asks:

For a community that prides itself on diversity, on differing opinions, on analysis, how can it be that the entire community’s thoughts on a subject like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be summarized in seven short Q&A’s? Moreover, how has this “perspective” become the dominant view in our community, to the point that acceptance of this “perspective” replaces nearly all other types of Jewish identification?

No one, not once, ever questioned my Judaism when I bit into a cheeseburger, yet certainly the level of kashrut observance in the American Jewish Community is at epidemically low levels. Never have I heard “how can you do this, you self-hating Jew” when I dated non-Jewish women… I do not remember ever being scolded and lectured for forsaking my identity and history when I attended a class on Rosh HaShanah or chose not to fast on Tisha B’Av, nor do my Jewish friends seem to feel any self-hatred now when they go to work on Yom Kippur. And finally, no one has ever accused me of being a danger to my community and my people when I did not belong to a synagogue or other Jewish organizations, did not positively identify myself and my beliefs as Jewish, did not know if I even believed in God.

But yet when I do keep kosher, observe chagim faithfully, marry a Jewish woman, identify as a Jew, pray as a Jew and feel connection to God as a Jew, yet wear a t-shirt that says “End the Occupation,” I am glowered at in synagogue. At the many public “Support Israel” rallies I have attended, I am spat upon and physically intimidated, berated as being a self-hating Jew, told I resemble the Jews who collaborated with the Nazis… Is this now the threshold of acceptable action among members of our community? You may argue that these are the acts of individuals, not the organizations sponsoring the rallies. But what makes such acts possible is, as I hear it, the constant reiteration of the “perspective” by the sponsoring organizations.

Jews have never been much good at marching in lockstep. In the broader Jewish community, there is diversity of opinion regarding Israel. Unfortunately, among more closely affiliated Jews, and in the leadership, there has been a tendency to marginalize dissent on this issue. Criticism of Israel and its policies is, at best, dismissed as misguided and at worst actively suppressed.

In its obstinance, the leadership may be missing an important phenomenon. A good number of left-leaning Jews are rediscovering their religious roots. We find in Judaism a tradition of fighting for the oppressed, of political protest and civil disobedience, of placing moral and religious values over the interests of the state.

One might say that while the Zionists adhere to the Davidic tradition (a hierarchical, state-based, temple-centered religion), the anti-Zionists have rekindled the Prophetic tradition (a personal theophany that dictates both religious observance and social action).

This has the potential to be a rejuvenating force in American Jewish life. For the last generation of secular or loosely observant Jews, Judaism was delicatessen food, the Congregation, and Israel. For many of their children, all that’s left is the food. We are in danger of extinguishing ourselves if we do not re-embrace Judaism as a morally, politically and spiritually relevant force. A lot of us are in the process of doing this - but on the way, we need to face, and reconcile, the moral breaches of modern Judaism. Our own treatment of the Palestinians is one of the most egregious.

Judaism is the bravest of religions. Through four thousand years of history, it has embraced justice and compassion as fundamental values, against all suffering and oppression. Just look at Leo Kramer. If Israel comes to reflect these better values, it may be a beacon among nations. But we won’t arrive there by shouting down the critics and trying to paper over our own wrongs with self-serving propaganda.